Automatic reclosing circuit-breaker



A. R. HARM 3,030,471 AUTOMATIC RECLOSING CIRCUIT-BREAKER Filed Oct. 22, 1959 April 17, 1962 4 Sheets-Sheet l Oil Level Fig.l.

INVENTOR Alson R. Harm ATTORN EY April 17, 1962 A. R. HARM AUTOMATIC RECLOSING-CIRCUIT-BREAKER 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 22, 1959 Fig. 3.

, @xwyvxmxx April 17, 1962 A. R. HARM AUTOMATIC RECLOSING CIRCUIT-BREAKER 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Oct. 22, 1959 April 17, 1962 A. R. HARM 3,030,471

AUTOMATIC RECLOSING CIRCUITBREAKER Filed Oct. 22. 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fig.9.

United States Patent-O 3,030,471 AUTOMATIC RECLOSING CIRCUIT-BREAKER Alsou R. Harm, Bloomington, Ind., assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation,East Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Oct. 22, 1959, Ser. No. 848,013 6 Claims. (Cl. 200108) This invention relates generally to circuit breakers and it has reference in particular to automatic reclosers.

It is an object of this invention-to provide an automatic recloser that is reliable in operation and economical to manufacture.

Another object of this invention is to provide in an automatic recloser mounted in a scalable tank, a minimum number of recloser control means extending through the tank to minimize the number of openings to be sealed.

More specifically, another object of this invention is to provide in an automatic recloser, trip means, reclosing means and non-reclose means,'all controlled by a single manual control shaft.

It is another object of this invention to provide in an automatic recloser having a manual reclosing mechanism and a lock-out mechanism an integrator operable to be advanced a single step for each circuit interruption which integrator resets slowly after each reclosing operation so as' to advance to operate the lock-out mechanism only after a predetermined number of closely successive interruptions and after operating the lock-out mechanism, resets rapidly at least one step to permit quick relatching of the lock-out mechanism when the contacts are being reclosed and the lock-out mechanism is being reset by the manual reclosing means.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, when taken in conjunction with the attached drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a reduced View, in side elevation, of the circuit interrupter with parts shown in section and with parts broken away.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view taken substantially along the line II--II of FIG. 1.

.FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along the line III-III of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view taken substantially alon the line IVIV of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the middle portion of the recloser taken substantially along the line VV of FIG. 1 with parts omitted and with parts broken away.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view of the middle portion of the recloser taken in elevation from the right of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the lower portion of the recloser taken substantially along the line VII-VII of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary view of the lower portion of recloser taken in elevation from the right of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of the recloser showing the trip coil, timing valve, reset valve and integrator mechanism.

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary sectional view of the interrupter mechanism, and

FIG. 11 is an elevational View of the timing valve.

Referring to the drawing, and particularly FIG. 10, there is shown a circuit interrupter 1 of a type substantially identical to that disclosed and described in detail in Patent No. 2,858,395, by A. R. Harm et al., patented October 28, 1958. The structure of the contacts has been changed to provide substantially constant contact pressure through a wide range of deflection of the contact elements. The stationary contacts 2 comprise a plurality of fingers 3 biased toward each other by a pair of 3,030,471 Patented Apr. 17, 1962 garter springs 4 and each having one end 8 pivotally gripping contact support member 5 which is constructed of electrically conducting material and is rigidly fixed in interrupter support 6. A conductor 7 electrically connects the contact support 5 to an insulated main terminal connector 9 which extends upwardly to connect in a conventional manner to a conventional main terminal assembly 10 (FIG. 1). The connection between the upper end of the connector 9 and terminal 10 is omitted for convenience of illustration.

The movable contact '11 is rigidly attached to the lower end of contact rod 12 which is constructed of electrically conducting material and is adapted for vertical reciprocating movement to carry the contact 11 into and out of the center of the finger contact cluster 2 to provide electrical engagement and disengagement the'rebetween.

J An interrupter chamber 13 encloses the contact mechanism and comprises a plurality of stacked plates of fiber construction or the like which are apertured to collectively provide upward and lateral venting chambers to give a combined axial and cross blast action as an arc is drawn when the rod 12 moves upwardly separating the contacts, all in the manner clearly described in the hereinbefore identified Patent No. 2,858,395. Rollers 14 mounted between guide studs 15 and the contact rod 12 make a rolling electrical contact between the contact rod 12 and the studs 15, the latter being composed of electrically conducting material and being rigidly attached to a lower support plate 16. A conductor plate 17, having an aperture 18, is rigidly attached to the upper end of both the studs 15 and is adapted to make electrical contact with a trip coil assembly 19 in a manner to be hereinafter described in detail. A dashpot piston 20 carried by contact rod 12 abuts the rollers 14 in their lowermost position along studs 15 when the contacts are fully closed as shown in FIG. 10, and, during a contact opening operation, is carried upward through aperture 18 into a mating cavity 21 in middle supporting member 22 to provide a damping action at the end of the opening operation. The circuit interrupter assembly 1 is adapted to be immersed in oil within an insulated tank 23 having a cover 24 removably seated on the tank 23 and serving as a support from which is suspended the entire recloser assembly. Specifically, a group of four insulated support rods 25 (FIG. 1, FIG. 7) connected between the interrupter support 6 and the lower support plate 16 fixes the interrupter chamber 13 and the contacts 2 and 11 with respect to each other and positions the interrupter support 6 and the lower support plate 16 with respect to each other to serve as end plates for the interrupter chamber 13. In a manner to be hereinafter described the lower plate 16 is fixed with respect to and supported from the middle mp port plate 22 which in turn is fixed to and suspended from the cover 24.

The contact operating mechanism, generally indicated at 30 (FIGS. 1 and 4), responds to operation of the trip coil assembly, hereinafter described, to effect separation of the contact and to automatically reclose the contact following the separating operation. This mechanism is essentially an overcenter toggle mechanism that is spring loaded to snap the contacts open and closed. Specifically, the contact operating mechanism comprises basically a contact lever 31 having one end pivotally attached to the upper end of the contact operating rod 32, and being fixed at a point intermediate its end for rotation with contact lever shaft 33. The contact operating rod has its lower end pivotally attached to the upper end of the extension 26 of contact rod 12 by means of pin 28 so that counterclockwise movement of the contact lever about shaft 33 moves the contact rod upwardly to disengage the contacts 2 and 11. The contact lever shaft is supported at its ends for rotation about its axis by way of an aperture in one end of each one of a pair of spaced parallel support arms 34a and 34b (FIGS. 3 and 4) which extend downwardly from and have their opposite ends fixed at right angles to a pair of spaced upper support brackets 35 and 36, the upper support brackets being attached in any suitable manner, as by bolts or welding, to downwardly extending protrusions 37, 38, 39 and 40 integral with the cover casting 24. An armature lever assembly comprising a lever arm 41 having an armature operating arm 42 integral therewith, is rigidly attached to and laterally spaced from, a lever member 43 by means of a sleeve 44 which is pivotally mounted on armature lever shaft 45 which is in turn supported at its end in the spaced support arm 34a and a support tab 34c and parallel to contact lever shaft 33. The armature operating arm 42 has its extremity pivotally attached to the upper end of an armature operating arm 46 which is adapted to be pulled longitudinally in a downward direction in response to the energization of hereinbefore described trip coil assembly 19 by an overcurrent in a manner to be hereinafter described.

A roller 47 on contact lever arm 41 is adapted to engage a cam surface 48 on contact lever 31 to pivot the contact lever 31 and its shaft 33 counterclockwise when the lever arm 41 is moved counterclockwise about shaft 45 in response to downward movement of armature operating arm 46. A pair of toggle springs 50 are provided to normally retain the forward or floating end of lever member 43 in an over-center condition with respect to shaft 33, as shown in FIG. 4 and to snap open the contacts at the end of a contact separation operation. Each spring has one end attached to adjacent points on the forward or floating extremity of lever arm member 43 and each having the other end attached to a spring retainer 51 pivotally connected for free rotation about shaft 52 fixed to the contact lever 31 at the forward or free floating end of the contact operating rod 31. The armature lever 41 is thus normally biased in a clockwise direction about shaft 33 to maintain the contacts 2 and 11 in a closed condition. As armature operating lever 31 moves counterclockwise about shaft 33 in response to the impetus provided by roller 47 on lever arm 41 engaging cam 48 on armature operating lever 31, the forward end of lever arm member 43 moves downwardly to stretch the toggle springs and ultimately assume an undercenter position with respect to shaft 33, thus suddenly changing the direction of force of the toggle spring to bias the contact operating lever 31 in a counterclockwise direction to provide rapid separation of contacts 2 and 11. The contact separating operation deenergizes the trip coil assembly, in a manner hereinafter described, thus eliminating the downward force on operating arm 46 and permitting the energy stored in the stretched toggle springs 48 to rot-ate contact lever 31 in a clockwise direction to reclose the contacts 2 and 11. As the line of force between shaft 52 and the floating end of lever 43 moves upwardly over shaft 33, the contacts 2 and 11 are closed with a snapping action as the toggle mechanism returns to the previously described over-center condition. An armature operating rod return spring 53 is stretched between a pivot 53b on extension 530 fixed to lever member 43 and a pivot 54 fixedly attached to upper support bracket 35. This spring effects reset of the lever arm 41 and the armature operating rod 46 to the position shown in FIG. 4.

The trip coil assembly 19 (best seen in FIG. 9) is comprised of a coil winding 56 wound on a coil spool 7 8, the spool and coil being mounted between lower support plate 16 and middle support plate 22, which plates are fixedly spaced by means of support rods 57, 58, 59, and 60 (FIGS. and 6). A magnetic armature 61, which may be cylindrical in form, is slidably received in a mating cylindrical aperture 62 in middle support plate 22 and a tubular liner 78a in the spool so that upon energization of the coil the armature will be drawn downwardly from the deenergized position, as shown in FIG. 9, within the coil 56, expelling oil under pressure through a channel 63 in a magnetic pole piece 64 fixed within the lower end of tubular liner 78a. A spacer 64a composed of nonmagnetic material such as brass, is provided on the pole piece 64 within the coil to prevent residual magnetism from holding down the armature 61 after a circuit interruption operation. The tubular liner 78a is preferably composed of non-magnetic material such as stainless steel and serves as a guide to prevent uneven magnetic forces from pulling the armature 61 to one side or the other and thus cause erratic timing. The upper end of armature 61 is pivotally connected to the lower end of armature operating rod 46 (FIG. 4) so that downward motion of the armature 61 in response to the energization of coil 19 operates the operating mechanism to open the contacts in the interrupter as previously described, and so that deenergization of the coil permits the operating mechanism to reset the armature at the end of a circuit interruption operation. a

The coil 56 is series connected with the interrupter and the main terminals 10 and 8 by means of conductor. 65 (FIG. 1) connecting conductor plate 17 of the rolling contact stud 15 to one end of-the coil 56, and by means of conductor 66 (FIG. 5) connecting the other end of coil 56 to an insulated conducting rod 67 leading to the main terminal 8 (FIG. 1).

In the operation of the recloser apparatus as thus far described, it is seen that an overcurrent in the line ener- V gizes coil 56 which draws armature 61 downwardly to expel oil through channel 63 and to simultaneously effect operation of the operating mechanism to separate the contacts 11 and 2. Within a fraction of an inch of the end of the downward stroke of the armature 61, the moving contact 11 will have pulled free of the stationary contact and will snap open under the overcenter pull of the contact toggle springs 50. The contact separating operation deenergizes the series connected trip coil 56 so that the operating mechanism resets the armature to its normal position and allows the contacts tosnap closed.

It is to be noted from reference to FIG. 9 that the oil channel 63 in pole piece 64 communicates directly with a relatively large main channel 69 in lower plate support 16 to normally provide for expulsion of oil through an exhaust port 70 into the tank 23. The main channel, being relatively large, provides for rapid transit of the oil expelled by the downward travel of armature 61, thus permitting a fast downward rate of travel for the armature 61, which in turn provides quick separation of the contacts 11 and 2 relative to the time of occurrence of the overcurrent condition.

An integrator, generally indicated at 71 (FIG. 9) and. hereinafter described in detail, responds to a predetermined number of downward movements of the armature 61 to block the port 70 in channel 69 to inhibit expulsion of the oil by the armature 61 and thus institute a timedelay tripping operation.

A timing valve 72 is threaded into the lower portion of lower support plate 16 and includes a channel 73 communicating directly with main channel 69 and also includes a venting channel 74 connected to the channel 73, which channels cooperate to vent the oil expelled from the piston chamber defined by liner 78a by operation of the armature when the port 70 is closed by the integrator. A plate 75 having a plurality of apertures 76 of predetermined difierent sizes, is pivotally mounted on timing valve 72 for rotation about pivot 77 to selectively align any one of the apertures 76 with port 74 to vary the rate of oil expulsion, as desired, to thus selectively provide different time-current tripping characteristics. A spring loaded ball valve 79 responds to extreme overloads in oil pressure to open anauxiliary oil vent 80 communicating with channel 73 and timing valve 72 to provide a time-current curve steeper than that ordinarily established by the vent 74 alone.

A reset valve 81 having a gravity seated ball 82 in a channel 83, is threadedly mounted in the lower portion of lower support plate 16 and aligned with channel 73 of pole piece 64. When the armature is being reset upwardly by the operating mechanism at the end of a contact separation operation, thus tending to create a negative pressure within piston chamber 78a which would tend to slow the upward travel of the armature 61 during reset, ball 82 is drawn upwardly to open port 84 in the lower portion of reset valve 81 to provide ingress of the oil from the tank 23 to the piston chamber defined by liner 78a, thus cooperating with port 74 of the timing valve 72 to prevent excessive retarding of the armature 61.

The previously mentioned integrator mechanism 71 is utilized to count closely succeeding circuit interruptions and is comprised of a counting piston rod 85 having at the upper end thereof a plurality of protrusions 89 for a purpose hereinafter described. The piston rod is disposed in a piston chamber 86 fixed to and extending through both the middle support plate 22 and the lower support plate 16 parallel to the longitudinal axis of the armature 61 and intersecting the main channel 69 in the lower sup port plate 16. The intermediate portion of the piston chamber includes a pair of opposed apertures 87 and 88 congruent with the main channel 69 to permit free passage of oil through port 70. An integrator valve 90' is threadedly attached to the lower end of the piston chamber 86 and comprises a ball 91 spring seated upwardly against a constricted neck portion of channel 92, which channel connects the piston chamber 86 to the cavity of the tank 23. This structure prohibits admission of the oil from the tank cavity to the chamber 86 but provides for rapid expulsion of the oil from the chamber 86 to the tank cavity 23. The lower portion of the piston rod 85 includes a constricted neck portion 93 sufiiciently wide in the longitudinal direction of the rod 85 to span the width of main channel 69 so that when the rod 85 is in its uppermost position, as shown in FIG. 9, the neck portion constitutes a relatively small constriction in the channel ,69, thus permitting a relatively free flow of oil through exhaust port 70 in response to operation of the armature 61. An integrator reset spring 94 is compressed between a shoulder 95 on piston rod 85 and the integrator valve 90 to urge the integrator piston 85 upwardly in the reset direction to the position shown in FIG. 9. In operation, the ball valve 91 permits an unrestricted rate of downward travel of piston rod 85, but inhibits upward 01' reset movement thereof so that the piston rod resets slowly under the force of spring 94 and the leaking of oil between the piston 85 and the chamber 86.

A pawl lever 95 (FIG. 1) is pivoted at one end as at 96 on middle support plate 22, and has its other end engaging in a pivoting sliding manner a right angle pin 97 fixed to the upper portion of armature 61 so that the lever will be moved downwardly each time the armature is pulled into the coil 19. The pawl lever 95 has a pawl member 98 pivotally mounted thereon intermediate its ends and biased by a spring (not shown) toward engagement with one of the protrusions 89 to move the piston downwardly each time the armature 61 is drawn into the coil 19. A catch 99 is rigidly fixed on the pawl lever 95 adjacent the pawl member 98 to engage the pawl member 98 and push it away from the protrusion 89 when the armature 61 is in the upward position as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 9. The disengagement of pawl member 98 from integrator protrusions 89 thus permits the reset of integrator 71.

It is apparent that upon the occurrence of a circuit interruption operation pulling the armature in a downward direction, the counting piston 85 will be moved downwardly a predetermined distance by pawl member 95 while freely expelling oil through valve 90. When the armature returns to its upward position, thus removing the pawl from engagement with the piston rod 85, the

piston will be urged upwardly by the action of integrator reset spring 94, but will be retarded in such movement by operation of the integrator valve which prohibits entry of oil into the chamber 86 through vent 92. However, if a number of circuit interruption operations occur in close succession, the counting piston 85 will not have time to return to its normally up position, because when the contacts reclose, the armature 61 will immediately operate to reopen the contacts and at the occurrence ofeach closely successive operation the pawl member will engage the next lowermost protrusion 89 of the counting rod 85 to advance the latter a further amount downwardly. As the piston rod 85 moves downwardly in a step-by-step manner for each successive count of a plurality of separation operations occurring in rapid succession, the piston rod will eventually block the channel 69 to thus divert the oil expelled from piston chamber 55 and coil 19 through the timing valve 72 which then functions to delay downward movement of armature 61 to provide time delay tripping action in the manner hereinbefore described. It is apparent that the integrator mechanism may be adjusted to provide any desired number of fast tripping operations followed by any desired number of timed delay tripping operations. If desired, exhaust port 70 may be capped to provide time delay action for all operations.

An upward extension 100 of the integrator piston rod 85 moves with the piston rod to ultimately operate a lockout mechanism in a manner hereinafter described in detail. A pin 101 at the extreme lower end of the integrator piston rod 85 is adapted to engage ball 91 and displace it downwardly on the last count of the integrator mechanism to hold open valve 90 thus providing rapid reset of the integrator for at least one step to permit latching of the lock-out mechanism during manual reset thereof, in a manner hereinafter described in detail.

The middle support plate 22 is suspended from and fixed with respect to the ,upper support brackets 35 and 36 by means of insulated support rods 102, 103, 104 and 105 (FIGS. 1, 5 and 6).

' A latch type lock-out mechanism, shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, is provided to prevent the operating mechanism from reclosing the contacts. The lock-out mechanism is normally inactive and may be activated by the integrator 71 at the end of a predetermined number of counting operations of a group of closely successive operations. Specifically, the lock-out mechanism is com prised of a lock-out lever 107 having a lip 108 on one end and having an extension 109 on the other end, and is pivotally mounted at a point intermediate its ends for ro tion about latch shaft 110 which in turn is rotatably mounted in and extending through the cover 24 to engage with externally mounted control levers hereinafter described. The shaft 110 is mounted for free rotation about its axis for purposes to be hereinafter described in detail. It is to be understood that lock-out lever 107 is mounted for independent rotational movement about shaft 110. A latch spring 111 is stretched between extension 109 on lock-out lever 107 and a stud 112 fixed on the forward portion of cover 24 to bias the look-out lever 107 in a counterclockwise direction from the normal latched position, as shown, to a lower lock-out position. A roller 113 is mounted on a lever extension 114 fixed to lock-out lever 107 at a point between lip 108 and shaft 110, so that counterclockwise rotation of lock-out lever 107 in response to the energy stored in spring 111 carries the roller 113 downwardly into engagement with the upper edge of the previously described contact lever 41 of the operating mechanism 30 (FIG. 4). A latch 115 is pmvided to releasably restrain the lock-out lever 107 in the normally inactive latched or reset position as shown in FIG. 3. The latch is mounted for rotational movement about a latch shaft 116 which is fixed at one end to an extension 117 on upper support bracket 36. The latch is biased in a clockwise direction about shaft 116 by of support bracket 36, with the end of tab 120 positioned adjacent the end of latch 115 so that clockwise rotation of shaft 119 will cause counterclockwise rotation of latch 115 about shaft 116, thus disengaging latch lip 106 from lip 108. 1

A trip tab 123 is fixed on the upper end of extension 7 rod 100 of the integrator 71 and is normally positioned above tap 121 when the integrator 71 is in its uppermost position, and moves downwardly step-by-step to finally engage the trip tap 121 on trip shaft 119, during the last downward stroke of the integrator piston rod 85. This tripping action effects rotation of the trip shaft 119 in a clockwise direction about its axis to initiate tripping of the latch 115 and release of the lock-out lever 107. The lock-out lever, once released, rotates counterclockwise about shaft. 110 in response to the energy stored in spring 111 to effect engagement of roller 113 with contact lever 41 to prevent a reclosing operation of the operating mechanism, it being understood that when tab 123 on integrator arm 71 trips the latch, the lever arm 41 is in the lower contact opening position. i

A lock-out reset mechanism is provided to reset the lock-out latch 107 after it has been tripped. Specifically, .a lock-out reset lever 128 is fixed at one end to rotate with the shaft 110, and has a laterally extending roller 129 at the other end for engaging the under side of lock-out latch 107 so that downward movement of the latch carries the reset lever downward to a lower position, and so that clockwise movement of the reset lever 128 thereafter returns the latch to the normal position as shown. A later- ;ally extending pin 130 is fixed to the lock-out reset lever 128 adjacent the roller 129 extending in a direction laterally opposite thereto to pivotally adjust a non-reclose trip lever 124 in a manner hereinafter described.

Referring to FIG. 3, a non-reclose mechanism is provided so that any operation of the armature 61 may be utilized to operate the lock-out mechanism to prevent a reclosing operation. Specifically, a trip lever 124, having an extension 125 intermediate its ends, is attached at one end to a pivot 126 on latch 115 for pivotal movement downwardly from the position shown in FIG. 3 to abut and rest upon the upper surface of armature lever 41 at a point adjacent the pin 49 fixed on lever sleeve 44. When the trip lever is so positioned, any downward movement of armature lever 41 in response to operation of the armature 61 rotates pin 49 counterclockwise about shaft 45 until it bears against trip lever 124 moving it longitudinally, thus rotating latch 115 counterclockwise about shaft 116 to release the lock-out mechanism in the manner previously described. The trip lever 124 may be rotated clockwise about pivot 126 to remove the trip lever from the path of pin 49. This is achieved by means of pin 13-0 on the lock-out reset lever 128, which pin bears against the underside of the trip lever 124 to pivot it upwardly when the lock-out reset lever 128 is rotated in a clockwise direction. Thus, it is seen that rotation of the lockout-reset lever 128 in a counterclockwise direction from a lower position to the position shown resets the lock-out lever 107, and, simultaneously, disengages the non-reclose mechanism, so that thereafter the recloser will operate through a predetermined number of interruption to lock-out. It is seen that counterclockwise rotation of the lock-out reset lever to a position substantially 30 from the position shown, leaves the lock-out lever 107 in the reset condition as shown, and engages the non-reclose mechanism for operation in response to the first trip operation occurring thereafter.

integrator may be otherwise exceedingly slow.

Referring again to FIG. 3, it will be seen that rotation of the shaft in a counterclockwise direction substantially 30 from the position shown to engage the nonreclose mechanism, moves a trip pin 131, fixed through shaft 110, to a position adjacent the end of extension on trip lever 124, so that continued manual rotation of shaft 110 in a counterclockwise direction beyond the 30 point causes trip pin 131 to bear against extension 125 on the non-reclose lever 124 thus urging trip lever 124 longitudinally to trip the latch 115 in the manner previ ously described. Thus, shaft 110, in addition to the previously described functions thereof, may also provide manual tripping and lock-out of the recloser mechanism.

This utilization of a single shaft to perform the multiple purposes of manual trip, manual close, and presetting of the non-reclose mechanism, as hereinbefore described, is particularly advantageous where it is desirable to seal the tank 23 against contaminating substances. The sin. gle shaft thus minimizes the number of openings to be sealed. It is understood, however, that venting of the tank may be obtained in the usual manner by means of an aperture or apertures (not shown) in the tank cover.

Manual rotation of the shaft 110 to perform the various operations is effected by a main lever 132 (FIGS. 1 and 2) having a pin 133 fixed thereto intermediate its ends and having one end fixed to the shaft 110 externally of the tank 23, the position of the lever as shown in FIG. 2 corresponding to the position of the lock-out lever 128 as shown in FIG. 3. It is seen that counterclockwise move ment of the lever 132 to its lower limit provides manual tripping as previously described. An automatic lock-out operation of the recloser as previously described causes the tripping of latch 107, which in its downward move ment bears against roller 129 rotating shaft 110 and main lever 132 to their lower limit so that thereafter a clockwise rotation of lever 132 to is upper limits as shown in FIG. 2, resets or closes the contacts in the manner previously described.

A non-reclose lever 134 is provided to rotate the shaft 110 only 30 and is pivoted at a point 135 to the tank 23, and includes a cam 136 fixed thereto intermediate its ends for engaging pin 133 to effect clockwise motion of lever 132 and effect only a 30 rotation of shaft 110 to provide the previously described presetting of the nonreclose lever 124.

An operating lever spring 140 (FIG. 3) encircles the latch shaft 110 having its ends abutting the pin 131 and stud 40 to bias the handle 132 towards its normal or closed position. If a non-reclose setting is desired, the non-reclose handle 134 is pulled downwardly to the lower limit thus carrying cam 136 to its lower extremity also. Cam 136 engages pin 133 in operating lever 132 to move the operating lever 30 until the pin engages the hooked portion of cam 136 to prevent further downward move-.

ment of the non-reclosing lever 134 and at the same time prevent upward movement of operating handle 132 until the non-reclose lever is manually returned to the normal position.

As hereinbefore described, the integrator 71 include a pin 101 at the lower extremity of the piston rod 85 to engage the ball valve 91 during the last downward stroke or count to hold open the oil channel 92. When the recloser is manually closed after automatic lockout in response to operation of the integrator mechanism 71, this structure permits rapid upward reset of the integrator mechanism until the ball seats in the valve, thus permitting the catch reset spring 118 to quickly rotate latch 115 clockwise about shaft 116 to engage catch lip 106 in latch lip 108. This structure of the integrator 71 is particularly important where low ambient temperatures increase the viscosity of the oil, so that normal reset action of the Under such conditions, and without the presence of the extension 101 on piston rod 85, the trip tab 123 at the top of the piston rod 85 would continue to bear downwardly against 9. trip tab 121 on trip shaft 119 to prevent reset of the latch 115, thus delaying latching of the latch lever 107 during a manual reclosing operation. After the ball seats in the valve, the integrator will reset slowly to its initial position as the oil slowly leaks through the annular space between the piston rod 85 and the chamber 86.

If desired, counting means 137 may be provided to count the number of operations of the recloser. An arm 138 is fixed on shaft 33 to operate a crank pin 139 which directly operates the counter in a conventional manner.

Having described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is intended that the invention be not limited to these particular structures, inasmuch as it will be apparent to persons skilled in the art that many changes and modifications may be made in these structures without departing from the broad spirit and scope of this invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. An automatic reclosing circuit breaker, comprising: separable contacts; operating means operable to open and automatically reclose said contacts in response to overload conditions; a lock-out lever pivoted at one end and operable from a reset position to a lock-out position to lock the operating means in the contact opening condition; spring means biasing the lock-out lever toward the lockout position; latch means releasably restraining the lockout lever in the reset position; counting means for operating the restraining means to release the lock-out means after a predetermined number of closely successive contact separation operations of the contact operating means; manually responsive means for resetting the lock-out lever after a lock-out operation; whereby the operating means is permitted to reclose the contacts; a reset lever having one end fixed to said rotatable shaft; means on the other end of said reset lever engageable with the lock-out lever for resetting the lock-out lever when the shaft is rotated in a predetermined direction to a terminal position from a predetermined initial position; means engageable with the contact operating means to operate said releasable means in response to the first occurring contact separation operation; means carried by the reset lever to prevent said engageable means from engaging the operating means only when the shaft is rotated in said predetermined direction beyond a predetermined point intermediate said terminal position and said initial position.

2. An automatic reclosing circuit breaker, comprising: separable contacts; operating means operable to open and automatically reclose said contacts in response to overload conditions; lock-out means operable from a reset position to a lock-out position to prevent the operating means from reclosing the contacts after a contact opening operation; latch means releasably restraining the look-out means in the reset position; means including a step-by-step integrator for operating the restraining means to release the look-out means after a predetermined number of closely successive contact separation operations of the overload responsive means; manually responsive means for resetting the lock-out means after a lock-out operation whereby the operating means is permitted to reclose the contacts; said means for operating the restraining means including means advancing the integrator one step for each separation operation and retaining the integrator in the advanced position until the occurrence of the subsequent reclosing operation; said integrator means including means providing a slow rate of reset of the integrator after each contact closing operation of the overload responsive means for any number of successive opening and closing operations less than said predetermined number, and including means providing an initially rapid reset of the integrator means after counting said predetermined number of closely successive separation operations, whereby rapid reset of the integrator means permits resetting of the latch means to provide relatching of the lock-out means when the lock-out resetting means is operated.

3. An automatic recloser, comprising: separable contacts; a counting means continuously biased toward reset and operable to be advanced from reset to count each separation of the contacts; overload responsive contact control means for separating the contacts and automatically reclosing the contacts after each contact separation operation; means responsive to each separation operation of the contact control means to advance the counting means one step and to maintain the counting means in the advanced position until occurrence of the subsequent contact reclosing operation; means normally minimizing the rate of reset of the counting means whereby a plurality of a predetermined number of closely successive contact separation operations advances the counting means to a terminal position; means operable to render ineffective the reset minimizing "means in response to attainment of the terminal position; a normally ineffective lock-out means for the contact control means and operable to prevent a contact reclosing operation of the contact control means until the lock-out means is reset; means for rendering effective the lock-out means in response to the attainment of the terminal position of the counting means; and manually responsive means for resetting the look-out means.

4. An automatic recloser, comprising: separable contacts; means controlling the contacts including means operable to separate the contacts in response to an overload condition and including means operable to automatically reclose the contacts following a contact separation operation; means operable to lock the contact controlling means in a contact separation condition; means in response to a predetermined number of operations of the contact control means to operate the lock means; a control shaft; means responsive to a first movement of the control shaft to reset the lock means following a lock operation; means responsive to another movement of the control shaft when the contacts are closed to effect operation of the lock means; and means responsive to yet another opera tion of the control shaft when the contacts are closed to preset the lock means for operation in response to the first contact separation operation of the contact controlling means occurring after operation of the presetting means.

5. An automatic recloser, comprising: separable contacts; means controlling the contacts including means operable to separate the contacts in response to an overload condition and including means operable to automatically reclose the contacts following a contact separation operation; means operable to lock the contact controlling means in a contact separation condition; means in response to a predetermined number of operations of the contact control means to operate the lock means; a control shaft; means responsive to a first movement of the control shaft to reset the lock means following a lock operation; means responsive to another movement of the control shaft when the contacts are closed to effect operation of the lock means, and means responsive to yet another operation of the control shaft when the contacts are closed to preset the lock means for operation in response to the first contact separation operation of the contact controlling means occurring after operation of the presetting means, a sealed tank enclosing the automatic recloser; said control shaft extending through a sealed bearing in the tank for movement in response to force applied to the shaft externally of the tank.

6. An automatic recloser, comprising: separable contacts; contact control means for separating the contacts in response to an overload and automatically reclosing the contacts following a contact separation operation; lock-out means operable from a reset position to a lockout position to prevent the contact control means from reclosing the contacts; latch means releasably restraining the lock-out means in the reset position; means including counting means for operating the latch means to release the lock-out means in response to the counting of a predetermined number of operations of the contact control means; non-recluse means for operating the latch means in response to a separation operation of the contact control means; a manually operable means for presetting the non-reclose means to respond to a contact separation operation of the contact control means.

References Cited in the file of this patent NITED STATES PATENTS. v Edwards June 11, 1957 Van Ryan Oct. 22, 1957 Stramowski Nov. 11, 1958 Cameron et a1. July'28, 19 59 Notice of Adverse Decision in Interference In Interference No. 93,117 involving Patent No. 3,030,471, A. R. Harm, Automatic reclosing circuit-breaker, final judgment adverse to the patentee was rendered Apr. 29, 1964, as to claim 4.

[Ofiicial Gazette October 27', 1964.] 

